I found it very interesting finding these stats on money magazine. Los Angeles County did not suprise me ranking #1 in millionaire households. What did suprise me is Cook County, where i currently reside beat out Orange County by almost 50%. I believe in order to be counted as a millionaire household, your net worth has to be greater than $1 million without including your equity in your primary residence. So I am curious to find out why Cook County is #2, while Orange County is #3? Is it because the population is greater in Cook County than OC? Is it because every $1M household in OC drives around in a ferrari, lamborghini, jaguars? while Cook County millionaires drive around in Hondas and Toyotas? Is there more of the millionaire next door (frugal) millionaires in Cook County than Orange County? I definitely know that the culture is very different between Cook County and OC?

What’s your opinion? 

Rank County No. of millionaire households
1 Los Angeles County, CA 262,800
2 Cook County, IL 167,873
3 Orange County, CA 113,299
4 Maricopa County, AZ 106,210
5 San Diego County, CA 100,030
6 Harris County, TX 96,593
7 Nassau County, NY 78,816
8 Santa Clara County, CA 75,371
9 Palm Beach County, FL 69,871
10 Middlesex County, MA 67,552

Pssh, they’re a dime a dozen…. now BILLIONAIRES…. that’s a much harder goal. 
-bix

biscuitninja - 19 July 2008 07:35 PM

Pssh, they’re a dime a dozen…. now BILLIONAIRES…. that’s a much harder goal. 
-bix

Biscuit,

Don’t you think it is pretty tough to reach millionaire status without including your equity in your primary residence. I agree by including your primary residence equity, it is probably a dime a dozen.

Yep, that’s what I was thinking.  Without including your equity, its much harder.  Still from what I’ve seen its really not that difficult, just stay the course and invest prudently. 

-bix

Bix,

So do have an opinion on why you think there are 50% more millionaires in Cook County, IL than Orange County, CA? This statisic really suprised me. I definitely thought that Orange County would have a lot more millionaires than Cook County. I wonder what the total population of Cook County is compared to Orange County.

Hint:

  Do some research on what entities exist in IL as well as what the taxes are.
-bix

Correction: OC has more millionaires than Cook county. As a percentage of the household population Cook county has 3.23%, and OC has 3.82%. Therefore the chances of you meeting a millionaire in OC are higher than that of Cook county.

If you took away the CME/CBOT employees/traders, then the percentage of millionaires in Cook county would drop like the housing prices here in OC. If OC had a major trading exchange, then Cook county would look like poorsville compared to OC.

Gotta compare apples to apples, not apples to lychees.

graphrix - 20 July 2008 11:42 PM

Correction: OC has more millionaires than Cook county. As a percentage of the household population Cook county has 3.23%, and OC has 3.82%. Therefore the chances of you meeting a millionaire in OC are higher than that of Cook county.

If you took away the CME/CBOT employees/traders, then the percentage of millionaires in Cook county would drop like the housing prices here in OC. If OC had a major trading exchange, then Cook county would look like poorsville compared to OC.

Gotta compare apples to apples, not apples to lychees.

Graph, your information seems to be accurate from a percentage of a household population. How does Orange County compare to Los Angeles County per percentage of the household population. Could it be possible that Orange County ranks #1 in terms of concentrated percentage of millionaires of the household population in the nation?

Graph, you are taking out one’s equity in their primary residence in the equation for apples to apples comparisons of millionaires right?

Panda

The static are from 2006, and there are newer number.  Anyway, from the MSN site, their percentage is this:

The richest U.S. counties
Rank County Millionaire households % of state’s
millionaire households
1 Los Angeles County, CA 262,800 23%
2 Cook County, IL 167,873 41%
3 Orange County, CA 113,299 10%
4 Maricopa County, AZ 106,210 62%
5 San Diego County, CA 100,030 9%
6 Harris County, TX 96,593 17%
7 Nassau County, NY 78,816 13%
8 Santa Clara County, CA 75,371 7%
9 Palm Beach County, FL 69,871 12%
10 Middlesex County, MA 67,552 28%

It is interesting to compare these county statistic to the median income.  OC is not considered one of the top 50 when it come to household income.  Fairfield County as well as Falls Church and Marin almost always beat OC in this category.  My guess is that OC people don’t make much money, and the millionaires are typically older residents who moved here for the weather.  I bet majority of the Real Millionaires of Orange County live in NB CdM or LW, and are over 55 yrs old.

Astute Oberver,

I think what Graph meant is the % household by the county, not the state.

Graph, so from your stats are you telling me that the total population of Orange County is 2,965,942 and the total population of Cook County is 5,197,306. Does this seem about right to you?

Panda

I realize what graph was looking for, but too lazy to dig up the exact household number.  LAC and CC are two of the most populous county in the US, while OC is the fifth.

According to wiki, back in 2000, there were 3,133,774 households in LAC, 1,974,181 households in CC, 935,287 households in OC.  You will get the same conclusion if you use the population data.

If you are interested in the millionaire per 1000 household, I don’t think OC is that high when compare to other county in the US.  But I have no specific statistic to support my opinion on this right now.

Astute Observer - 21 July 2008 08:21 AM

It is interesting to compare these county statistic to the median income.  OC is not considered one of the top 50 when it come to household income.  Fairfield County as well as Falls Church and Marin almost always beat OC in this category.  My guess is that OC people don’t make much money, and the millionaires are typically older residents who moved here for the weather.  I bet majority of the Real Millionaires of Orange County live in NB CdM or LW, and are over 55 yrs old.

The mean age for this survey was 66 - so you are somewhat correct in your assumption. “Millionaire” is not necessarily equivalent to “very rich” if those are your assets that cover your 20+ retirement. It might as well be people who have a modest home and chose to divert more money into an investment portfolio.

I saw that study, what you guys failed to mention is that most of the millionaires in OC are SC alumni.
We’re killing it!

tenmagnet - 21 July 2008 01:04 PM

I saw that study, what you guys failed to mention is that most of the millionaires in OC are SC alumni.
We’re killing it!

Yeah, you guys are all over the place.  I remember a few jobs ago we had a whole crew of SC MBAs.  When it came crunch time and I was coding away, they were bringing me breakfast, asking what kind of smoothies they could bring me in the afternoon, taking us to dinner.

It was kind of weird having an SC MBA as my errand boy.

25w100k+ - 21 July 2008 01:41 PM

tenmagnet - 21 July 2008 01:04 PM

I saw that study, what you guys failed to mention is that most of the millionaires in OC are SC alumni.
We’re killing it!

Yeah, you guys are all over the place.  I remember a few jobs ago we had a whole crew of SC MBAs.  When it came crunch time and I was coding away, they were bringing me breakfast, asking what kind of smoothies they could bring me in the afternoon, taking us to dinner.

It was kind of weird having an SC MBA as my errand boy.

USCTrojanman from this forum must be working over there.
He’s a Bruin undergrad.
Only way I could see that happening.

tenmagnet - 21 July 2008 01:04 PM

I saw that study, what you guys failed to mention is that most of the millionaires in OC are SC alumni.
We’re killing it!

That explains a lot - it was based on a survey. And we know how ethical and honest those SC boys are ...

I found this stat from the book “Automatic Wealth” 2005 from Michael Masterson to be very suprising that Millionaires in America live in very modest homes. I was wondering if this same theory holds for Millionaire Households living in Orange County?

Page 79: Step 3: Develop Wealthy Habits : Table 3.1

Networth (in millions)    Average networth           Average house value
$1 to under 2.5             $1,470,553               $220,796
2.5 to under 5             $3,392,416               $354,043
5 to under 10               $6,809,409               $545,499
10 to under 20             $14,045,501               $779,444
20 and more               $58,229,024               $1,073,980

Let’s assume for argument sake that we double the Average house value for a millionaire living in orange county (since it an expensive place to live to rest of America). That would put a millionaire who’s networth is between $1 to under $2.5 million without the equity of their primary home to be living in a average home value of $441,592 which is still very impressive? IPO, did you happen to see any of your detached condo neighbors in West Irvine with a networth of $2M - $10M range?

I am really curious about the lifestyles of the millionaires of Orange County compared to Cook County. The stats shown above is very realistic for millionaires I have known and ran into in Chicagoland area. Their home values are practically 10% - 12% of their entire networth? Is this the case for an Orange County Millionaire? Have any of you seen millionaires who have a networth between $5 - under $10 million live in a 1600 square feet detached condo in Irvine? or are they living in a 4000 square feet mansion in Shady Canyon? This is a very interesting topic for me and I was wondering if any Orange County millionaires can give me your feedback?

Thanks
Curious Panda

Panda, you have the same topic being discussed in two threads.
What’s up with the double posting, dude ? ? 

Well the “off-topic” section has a less visible audience… I wanted to get the opinion of many people living in OC as possible. Also the thread is focused on the lifestyle of the orange county millionaire.